Friday, 18 November 2016

(AFP)
- Authorities in Mozambique started investigations on Friday into
whether locals were illegally taking petrol from a tanker that exploded
killing at least 60 people and injuring more than 100.

Officials
had originally put the death toll at 73 following the massive blast on
Thursday in Tete province in the country's remote western region near
Malawi.

By Friday, officials had counted 60 bodies in mortuaries as recovery efforts continued.

"In
the accident, 108 people were injured, 96 of whom are still being kept
in for treatment at Tete Provincial Hospital," government spokesman
Mouzinho Saide said at a press conference in Maputo.

"The
cabinet has created a commission of inquiry to investigate the
circumstances, causes and responsibilities for this accident."

According
to authorities' initial accounts, the truck was carrying petrol from
Mozambique's port city of Beira to neighbouring landlocked Malawi.

The
driver took a detour and stopped close to the Malawi border in the
village of Caphiridzange to sell petrol to local people, a common
practice in Mozambique.

"The
truck drivers were transferring petrol into a smaller truck and they
fled when they noticed there was an (electrical) short circuit," Emilia
Moiane, an information ministry director, told AFP.

"Seeing the truck had been abandoned, locals came to syphon petrol off, not knowing that the truck was already burning inside." One of the truck drivers was from Mozambique and the other from Malawi, officials said.

President Filipe Nyusi told reporters that "tragedy has knocked on our door" with the high loss of life.

"What is important now is to take action and help the affected," he said.

Photographs
and video footage from the hospital in Tete showed badly burned
children arriving for emergency care and adults lying on hospital beds.

"We
still have a lot of cases in a critical condition, including children
and two pregnant women, out of 38 cases in total," Tete hospital
director Veronica de Deus said.

"The
vast majority of patients have severe burns. Some have 80 to 90 percent
of their bodies burnt," she said on public broadcaster TVM.

Authorities
said many of the dead would be buried in a mass grave, and announced
that three days of national mourning would start on Saturday.

A
plastic surgeon and other emergency health staff have been sent from
Maputo, 1,500 km (930 miles) by road, to help deal with the large
numbers of injured, including 17 children.

The
government in Mozambique, one of the world's poorest countries,
recently increased the price of fuel after the value of the local
currency -- the metical -- fell sharply.

The metical has collapsed by 70 percent against the US dollar this year after falling 36 percent in 2015.

The Tete provincial government has appealed for emergency food aid and transport assistance for affected families.